#18 - Newton Challenge Malaysia, 30 December 2012

It has come to this then - Bandar Kinrara became the witness to my worst performance in a running race, ever. Even politicians didn't let me down this hard. So, let me just sum up the Newton Challenge Malaysia in a few handy points.

1. Baguette and butter alone IS NOT ENOUGH for a breakfast. Carb-loading a few days prior has got nothing on running with an empty stomach feeling.

2. Never take your race preparation easily. If it's a 25km run, then you have to prepare like it's a 25km run, and not a kid's dash.

3. Bananas make excellent immediate post-race food, especially when you are found starving. It's worth it to spend a bit more on really good bananas. Those sold at the night market are of the inferior kind.

That's that, then. Otherwise, for a disappointing outing, the finisher's medal is totes awesome.

At least next time around I can brag to others, saying: "Hey, I have a Newton shoe, and it's wicked metal."

#17 - The World is Coming to an End, Part 2

So, just now, this happened: as I was going up the stairs, saw a lady going down. She looked at me, took out a flier from her handbag, handed it over to me, and with the most nonchalant tone, casually said: "If you're looking to lose your body weight, give me a call."

Hey there, sexy mama. Wanna kill all human?

What - me, lose weight? Well, this has got to be the surest sign. The world is coming to an end!

#16 - The World is Coming to an End, Part 1

This is the scene that greeted me this morning.

Eerily reminds me of the movie "The Mist"

A thick fog envelops Bangi in the morning of 21 December 2012. The world is coming to an end!

#15 - Brace Yourselves...

...end of the world posts are coming.

And they would be stream-posted, a-la Twitter.

Shit, I'm reinventing myself. The world is coming to an end!

#14 - Good news, every coffee drinkers-runners!

Yes, yes - read that title again in my voice.

Found an interesting article here, thanks to Triathlon Malaysia.

Well, I say interesting because that's what people normally say when they want other people to take interest in something that they have discovered, as well. I'm not a big fan of coffee - but a cup of cappuccino once in a while is nice.

Tea, though, on the other hand - that is something that I'm currently on hardcore die hard fan mode. Nutritionists the world over - any good news for tea drinkers-runners as well?

#13 - On Cloudsurfer (2011), the final review

Ah, a cool Tuesday morning, perfect for a run I thought to myself - and, it's a public holiday to boot. Thank you sultan of Selangor.

I only had a total three hours of interrupted, non-continuous sleep - feeling slightly feverish - and with both of my hips still in relative pain, it's a real double whammy kind of bonus to inform that the toilet bowl at my house is the squatting down one. The thought of having to take a dump had never been this disconcerting. Nevertheless, I'm feeling fresh.

Well, apart from my legs.

But I have a much more important task at hand here: doing my final review run in my Cloudsurfer. This time I need to really focus on the important stuff, like build quality, fit and feel, comfort, weight, airiness - the overall critical look at the shoe.

Oh look - the first and the only inclination for this morning's track

The route that I'm using this morning is roughly about 4.5km one way, from my house towards the UNIKEB building near UKM, and is largely flat-lying throughout, except for one inclination 300 meter after the start. It's a major thoroughfare, these roads, so traffic are quite heavy normally. But because today is the sultan's birthday, it was most of the time deserted.

Perfect.

Since it was awfully quite, among the first thing that my ears caught was a distinct rubbery squeak. It's like when you're wearing a wet rubber flip flop and as you walk, your feet and the slipper rubs each other, you get that squeak? It's the same kind of sound - except with the Cloudsurfer, it's not too noisy. In fact, the squeak is only apparent when you are completely by yourself.

In my previous initial initial review, I remarked about how 'bouncy' the shoe was - well, that 'bounciness' can be attributed to the rubber pods.

It was said that the shoe "returns back the energy to the runner" so that as you lift off, you will feel a certain 'push' that makes you go forward and aids with your running. I'm not sure if what I wrote just now made sense but I do feel it. You know - the push. The bounce. The... the uh... yeah, those things.

In my own word, I can say the shoe feels 'lively' - it wants you to keep on going. (Eh, get it? Keep ON going? Yes?) Unlike other running shoes which has lots and lots of cushioning so it absorbs all the shocks but feels 'dead' upon lifting off your feet.

And I'm saying that, keep in mind, as a terribly huge fan of the Saucony Progrid Triumph 9. Lots and lots of cushion, but no push for the lift off - something that I believe would be of huge advantage as you reach towards the last few kilometers of your run.

That makes for a very interesting case for the Cloudsurfer - and all the other three models from On Running.

Aww... don't worry. You're still my number one.

As for the run, I decided against doing a timed run, all for a very good *technical reason. Besides, that would give me ample chances to properly review the shoe.

Empty road some more... what is this? Has everyone else turned into zombie, 28 Days Later-style?

There is still a long way to go before I reach the UNIKEB building, and despite the narrow road, I had enough chance to look at other aspects of the shoe. After establishing the 'bounciness' of the shoe...

Uh... hello? Anyone?

...of the shoe. Yeah, um...

The Cloudsurfer sports a heel drop of 7mm, which is 1mm less than the Triumph 9, but frankly I can't really note the difference. But the Saucony Kinvara 3 however, with a heel drop of only 4mm, now that shoe is something else. The importance of the difference in heel drop has been... extensively covered... by numerous... a number of chiropractors... professional advocates... hang on a minute...

Is the sultan having a huge birthday bash, and I'm the only one not invited?

EVERYONE HAS BEEN ABDUCTED BY THE ALIEN! EXCEPT YOU! FOREVER ALONE!

No, this is too quiet.

Me, after doing 4km

There - now it's better. So, going back to the matter of heel drop - as I was saying, the Cloudsurfer has a 7mm drop, which is not that much of a difference from my number one shoe.

"Oh you, stop it." -Blushes-

But as with the intended build of the Cloudsurfer, the cushioning is kept at minimum level, only just enough that your feet won't hurt even after doing the 26 mile. But with the absence of cushioning comes lightweightness. And with lightweightness comes agility and responsiveness.

Huh, sounds like I'm writing a promotional material for the Lotus Elise.

But the shoe is very light, you hardly notice that the Cloudsurfer is there along with you as you eat up the kilometers. I like that a lot. It doesn't bog you down like an overly-attached girlfriend.

YOU CALLED?

So, final verdict: the On Cloudsurfer is a very good running shoe, both for training and for race day. Alas, for me, the Cloudsurfer is my long-distance training shoe. But that is a matter of personal preferences. Apart from that, I have very high praises towards the On Running team, and especially to Olivier Bernhard, for bestowing the world with a one-of-a-kind, specially-engineered running shoe with a runner in mind.

If you're in the market looking for a new pair of trainers or race day shoe, give the On Running shoes a try. For seasoned or pro runners looking for a lightweight shoe, the Cloudracer is for you. If you want to experience the wonders of the On shoe but without sacrificing the comfort of impact cushioning, the Cloudrunner is for you. Beginner? Get the Cloudster.

Well, enough of promotional material. This then concludes my review of the On Cloudsurfer.

Oh, and I should also add that the shoe has been very kind on my knees as well. Which is a bonus. Also a bonus, along the track during the run, I saw this:

Just look at those red, plump, and juicy rambutans... aaa...

Lots of these along the way...

#12 - Cyanide & Happiness, no.3014 (8/12/2012)

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

#11 - Enjoy Green Challenge, the Conclusion

I woke up, peered over my study desk to look at the clock - it says 5:30 a.m. Ah, crud. The original plan was to get up at 3, get prepared and leave house at 4, then head over to that 7 Eleven store (the one near the... in P.J.) and get myself some bananas.

It's one of a handful few 7 Eleven stores that sell fresh bananas.

Well, the best-laid plan had to be scrapped, so we'll move to plan B: just get the Hell out of Bangi quick!

Fast forward to a couple of hours later and I find myself sitting on a curb nearby my car. "That's it - this dirt-ravaged, bruised, and aching leg is the living and breathing testament to me finishing a 15km trail run, for the first time ever!" I thought to myself.

But the cut runs much deeper than skin level...

The one absolute thing that I can conclude from the race is that mother nature actively hates you.

They do - throughout the 10km run inside the thick forest of Bukit Gasing, my leg got tangled by the vines and rotan trees more times than I can be bothered to count. They were all practically, and conveniently, littered all throughout the trail from start to finish like it's some sort of a twisted razor blade-strewn playground made by the Jigsaw guy, just to see how much cuts and bruises are you willing to take on your own body just so that you can finish the game.

Except of course, here, then, nobody died. But there was one moment when I was (kind of) speeding down a slope when (surprise, surprise) my right leg got tangled by a rotan tree youngling (Is that what you call them? I don't care enough to know). If I was going at a much higher speed at that time I would've definitely taken a much more spectacular fall, and a dislocated shoulder is a very real possibility.

Fuck you, rotan kid.

"Fuck you right back, loser!"

"Ooh, sick burn, bro."

The one comment that I would like to make towards the organizer is regarding the route. You guys might have a very good reason for not disclosing the route for the run until the moment you arrive at the starting line that morning - fine, whatever.

But try to consider people like me who have never lived in P.J., and have never been to Bukit Gasing. I mean: how would I know that the hill ascents (yes, ascents - there was a lot of climbing involved) would be THAT steep, and THAT high. The least that the organizer can do is by giving a detailed and vivid description of how the track is like so that we, the runners who have never been to Bukit Gasing, can prepare ourselves better - physically and mentally.

And did I mention about the hill ascents? Because I believe that's the only reason this entry exist.

The 'infamous' hill is somewhere in the furthest horizon in this picture. Ooh, a Nissan X-Trail!

And before I finish my report of the after-race of the inaugural Enjoy Green Challenge 2012, I believe I should say something about the hill climbs: they are very high, they are very steep, and they come in large number. If you're thinking between the number 4 and 5, you can just forget your dreams of ever doing trail running. That damned trail alone has shattered so much hopes and dreams of people who are dreaming of a top 50 finish (mine is one of it), it is a comparable offender similar to that of a member of the parliament right after the general election.

Oh yes - finisher's medal is only for top 50 runners. And I finished in 59th.

So you're saying all that sweat and blood and tears are for nothing?

So, it's not just mother nature that is actively hating us, but the organizer as well.

Sodding hell.

Otherwise, thank you so much Adizero XT. You did not let me down.

#10 - Enjoy Green Challenge, Before Race Day

I'm making this official: Ding Tea serves the second best Bubble Milk Tea of all, in Malaysia.

If he spilled the drink all over the dashboard, I will not hesitate to stab murder my co-pilot.

So, only a few hours left to go before somebody murder the sky, I went to pick up my race pack at the padang opposite the Amcorp Mall in P.J. It was a bumper crowd, there - right beside the field and inside the A&W restaurant.

I walked to the collection counter, showed my I.C., and a few seconds later was handed with a red tote bag with New Balance printed across the front. Or the back. It has two sides.

Fair to say I was delighted.

The face says "thrilled", the body says "dafuq?"

Inside the tote bag contains the usual stuff: sleeveless shirt (New Balance, but this time they printed the number on the shirt, so no racing bib for me this time, and definitely no timing chip), and a host of few other free gift from the sponsors...

The color scheme is... spasmodic!

Oh, and should I mention here, casually, that this is actually a trail run, and not a road run. That's 15km of running on uneven surfaces that is sure to prove very taxing on my gradually-getting-creaky knees.

And worse still - finisher's medal for the first 50 only.

That's me rocking the "totally not a champion" look like a champion

This blog, in ten hours time, will have one of the saddest entry for the day.

#9 - Dance Punk Party, New Order Tribute

One guy in this picture is having a time of his life and totally ruined a good picture

Another Enterprise-related news, the band will be performing at the upcoming Dance Punk Party - New Order Tribute, taking place on the 15th of December, Saturday, 1930 hours onwards.

Other bands to perform include Khottal (never heard/seen them before), Free Deserters (think have seen them before but can't remember where, when, what), The Otherside Orchestra (definitely have seen them before; can't be bothered to remember - perhaps it was that one with that one indie dance band that was not Komplot and with a female vocalist), Black Diamond Folds (nope), Think! Tadpole! Think! (seen them twice before, very interesting), and Moist (uh... no I guess).

One guy who's not in this picture is having a time of his life and did not ruin a good picture. Good!

Holy shit, only now I remembered that all the pictures of previous gigs that I have attended all throughout 2012 is in my laptop, which is now failing on me. And I don't have any other backup copies.

Dun dun dun...

I did took one real bitching picture of T!T!T! performing at Palate Palette. I'd be really pissed off if can't rescue that one. Damn you to electronic goods Hell, Acer!

One guy in the picture is having a music euphoria-induced orgasm

All pictures are *courtesy-copied from the blog Herobear. As the Germans would say: Danke! Whoever you are...

#8 - Enterprise "On a Mission"

Good - so the Subang Jaya-based (woohoo!) band Enterprise has released a 'proper' studio-recorded version of the song "On a Mission".

Guys, next on the list: "Raindance". Make it happen and make it awesome. Because live, it is. Very, very awesome.

Then release a 'traditional' EP, or even better an LP, because I bought the "Let's Have Fun Tonight" CD and to my surprise, after the first track, it went on an infinite loop on itself. Paid RM7 for the damn thing.

Listen to the track here.

Caveat emptor: Make sure your surrounding is furniture and expensive stuff-free. Lively leg is a normal occurrence.

#7 - Power running shoes (the old ones...)

While waiting for me to finalize my on-road test of the brand-new old-one On Cloudsurfer, here is a heartfelt story about my first ever running shoe: the Power um... running shoe.

It has no model name - it has no identity. That poor thing.

Ooh... I've got no name. I'm mysterious...

So, uh, I don't know - I mean I'm not quite sure how to do this. You see, with the On Cloudsurfer, that shoe has a name: Cloudsurfer; so I can refer to the shoe as Cloudsurfer. Same thing with my race day shoe, which is the Saucony Powergrid Triumph 9, or the T9 for short. So, that's that.

The people at Power should really take a long, hard look at their marketing department and start realizing that perhaps they are being staffed by mannequins. Or looking at their yearly operational budget and wonder why the marketing department never asked for any money.

Come on Power, give your product a name - so that people, the customer, has something to relate to with.

Not that it's a very good product to begin with, isn't it...?

Well, apart from that I got this shoe, like, a few hours before the 2011 Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon started. It was priced at RM80.

Cheap price, hence a cheaply-built product. And no I don't trust your highly glossy website.

From the look of the outsole of the shoe, I clearly have done lots of kilometers in it. I wasn't actually bothered to take note of it before this, but I reckon it's in the 100++ kilometers region.

Well, what else can I say - thank you (this one) Power shoe for taking me on such a long and arduous journey of a beginner marathoner such as myself. You have served me well.

I may at times (lots of it) ridicule your cheap build and the total abence of any form of cushioning whatsoever as compared to the much more properly-built shoes like the Saucony, or the Cloudsurfer.

I know that you are not built to be a contender to the likes of Asics, or Brooks, or New Balance, or Newton, or On, or Saucony, or Skechers, among other. You are just the pretender - the pretender that is very well aware of itself (of it's own shortcomings, so you didn't try very hard).

You are the running shoe for the common people, the running shoe for those who are just starting, the running shoe for people who are only interested in running for two months then totally forgot it for the next twenty years, the running shoe for poseurs who like to think in their mind that they are a total killer on road but know that they could not afford a Nike or Adidas, the running shoe for kids whose parents are only taking a very mild interest in what their children are doing and bought that one shoe in hoping that it will come across as thoughtful but honestly it was a half assed job that was done half assedly.

Or perhaps because your parents doesn't love you that much.

Yeah - that's the persuasive power of the Power shoe.

#6 - No Facebook

People still look at me weird when I tell them I don't have Facebook account.

My existence is the only thing that matters because I AM real. Facebook is not.

Eh, a full review of the Cloudsurfer is coming very shortly...

#5 - An Imaginary Place in the Future, Part 1

You... I hate you... McBooger Fuzzballs

So here is an article about atheism and religious tolerance, two words that goes together as well as Mentos and a bottle of Coke, or sugar with sulfuric acid, or the Roman Catholic church with young boys, or Najib with the electronic media - they should never tango along.

It was initially a minor nuisance, an issue that I have the least of any vested interest about even if I have got to the bottom of list of things that I should occupy myself with. Watching the 12-hours version of the Nyan Cat video is among the bottom-list occupier. But a piece of poop, when flung into your general vicinity, and had been done so continuously for so long, you can only ignore it long enough before you give in.

Tonight... we dine in HELL!

People with religion, especially Muslims, are among the most hostile and close-minded and hateful and illogical and devoid of critical analysis capacity bag of meat.

And the worst thing of all: it's the religion actually that compels them to behave in such a way in the first place. Religion made them hostile. Religion made them hateful. Religion made them close-minded.

Or it's the other way around, I don't know.

There is this small, very faint, almost whispering voice that says religion is a matter of choice.

But at the end of the day, hostility and close-mindedness and hatred trumps over good sense and logical deduction. We are still, after all, an animal. Barbaric animals.

And for my next move: Jumping Love Bite Attack on the Neck!

#4 - Malaysia's football, hah!

So, full time at the National Stadium Bukit Jalil, the first game (for Malaysia) at the AFF Suzuki Cup, they are (trying to distance myself from the team) three goals down without any reply.

In Malay language, if a team (any team), or person, or things, that is/are poor, or of poor quality, we refer to them as 'ayam'. English word is 'chicken'.

When the same said 'chicken' got his/her/its'/their ass handed to, it can also be referred to as being 'grilled'. So, here's an appropriate picture to the Malaysia football team:

Hardee harhar

Better *luck next time, boys?

*because technically speaking, we were never good. So a win to Malaysia is total fluke.

#3 - On Cloudsurfer, the first impression

So, here's my initial review of the *brand new On Cloudsurfer, as purchased at a discounted price at the truly cool Athlete's Circle.

Huzzah!

Saturday, 24 November 2012, 0600 hours, Desa Sentosa Fasa 2, Bangi, south of KL, north of Nilai, east of Putrajaya, west of... err... a thick rainforest? Never mind, does not matter, a new day awaits, and more importantly a *brand-spanking new shoe is waiting for me.

So I walked out of my room, switched on all the lights, and walked to the kitchen sink to brush my teeth. (No, the house's bathroom is devoid of the sink) Then I woke up the housemate (he the one with the other pair of Cloudsurfer), then took my shower.

If On Running uses this picture in their promotional material, sales worldwide will definitely triple

Twenty minutes later, we're both ready - eager, no, raring to go. It should be an exciting Saturday morning run at the track, we both thought. But then...

BAM! Herpes. No - rain. Rain.

The rain lasted for two and a half hours before I resolved that we should just drive down to the track and see if it slows down to a light drizzle. So we did. And thankfully by the time we made it at the track in Seksyen 15, the sky cleared up. Perfect!

And so we did finally go for a, no, not run, a slow jog. 6 rounds, 2.4km, that is all. I thought: "Bah! Humbug." But from that 2.4km slow jog, I did manage to get something for my initial initial review of the shoe.

Business in the front, party in the back...

The first thing that I notice with my first few step was that they are 'bouncy'. And so avid runners all around Malaysia let out a hearty guffaw as they see me using that word to describe what the gods of Swiss marathoner have bestowed runners the world over with this neat technology called Cloudtec.

That's where the traction, the cushion, and the 'bounce' comes from - the rubber pods, or clouds as the marketeers at On Running like to refer to it as. I suspect the sky over Switzerland must be very clear all year round so they had to imagine how a real cloud actually looks like. Ah, those poor Swiss.

But those pods makes for a really interesting-looking bottom for any running shoes currently available in the market.

And when I read that line again for a second time, the very subtle innuendo is inescapable.

Alas, a proper full review of the shoe should come in later post as I try to put in more mileage in her... Ooh, look at the shoe...

Until then...

*as per my purchase